1. Field of Art
The present embodiments generally relates to the sharing of information and more specifically to securely sharing information via a public key-value data store.
2. Background
Users of client devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, and desktops) are able to send and receive communications and data using various communications protocols and associated software applications. Some of these communications protocols provide enhanced security features. For example, some may provide end-to-end encryption between the client devices engaging in the communications. Others may not require that the user provide a significant amount of personally identifiable information.
A common aspect of current communications protocols is that they typically need to use a centralized server or cluster of servers (e.g., a cloud) in order to facilitate communications between two parties. The centralized server is typically involved in performing handshake and maintenance activities between client devices using the communications protocol. The centralized server may also assist users in searching for other users as well as transfer messages between client devices. Without a centralized server, the client devices executing the communications protocol may not be able to easily find each other and send data to each other.
However, with a centralized server, there is typically a need to keep at least some record of communications between client devices. Although the actual contents of the communications (e.g., text message, image file, voice records) may not be stored, metadata regarding communications (e.g., IP addresses, timestamps), which may be required for the communications protocol to properly function, need to be logged and stored. By mining this metadata, one may be able to create a detailed record of the communications of an individual user, and in turn, may be able to discover things about the user that the user did not intend others to find out.